Before he died, Guadalupe Hernandez Camacho (affectionately known to all as Don Lupe) was known as a man you could count on for help when you needed it. He was a kind, gentle and generous presence among farm workers in the community, a Puente regular, and a friend to many in Pescadero for over 20 years.

So when he died suddenly on May 5, it was the community and his family in Mexico who rallied around Puente’s effort to send Don Lupe’s body back to Michoacán. It was a complicated and expensive undertaking and it represented a major challenge – logistical, legal and emotional – for Corina Rodriguez and other staff members, who had formed a bond with Don Lupe.

“Whenever Puente needed funds for anything, he was always the one who spoke up and said, ‘We can help, we can all do a little bit.’ He became really a key figure,” says Rodriguez, Puente’s Safety Net Services manager.

Don Lupe, 63, was a passenger in a car crash in Highway 1 on Cinco de Mayo. His death was a shock, and his memory will be honored this year on the Community Altar during Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead, during the final Pescadero Farmers’ Market of the season on November 1.

Don Lupe was frequently at La Sala and would play one of the three kings during the community Posada. He was known to sing when singers were needed. He was an eager, veteran presence in Puente’s English classes. He liked to joke about the fact that he never graduated out of the beginner class, but he always showed up.

Don Lupe worked on a local vegetable farm. He used to travel back and forth to his hometown, a village in Michoacán, but it had been eight years since he had seen his wife, son and three daughters due to his legal status.

With no family living nearby, it fell to Puente to handle everything after his death, from contacting his family, to sorting through his belongings, to handling the logistics of getting his body to his family, who could not cross the border to retrieve it. In the end, the cost exceeded $3,000 and it took over a month to return Don Lupe home, due to a morass of complications.

The first person who got a call after the car accident was Puente’s Community Outreach Coordinator, Joaquin Jimenez, who called Executive Director Rita Mancera. When San Mateo County Coroner’s Office did not have a phone number to inform the family, Mancera reached out to local authorities in Mexico to help find a phone number for the family in rural Michoacán. It then fell to Rodriguez to coordinate all of the logistics with Don Lupe’s family. She spoke to his son Noe, who had already gotten a call from the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office and Puente’s Executive Director.

“I make a lot of phone calls at Puente – some of them are difficult. It’s part of my job,” she says.

“I told him we were figuring out how to transport Don Lupe’s body to Mexico. It’s just all these hard questions that someone doesn’t want to be thinking about after they’ve just learned their father died.”

To her surprise, Noe already knew all about Puente from talking to his dad.

“As soon as I said I was from Puente, he said, ‘Oh, my dad always had stories about how Puente helped him, and how you guys are so great.”

It was the start of close working relationship Rodriguez would develop with Noe and Don Lupe’s widow, Antonia. At the beginning, no one suspected how long it would take to put Don Lupe to rest in his hometown. The family first had to get to a notary in Mexico to give Rodriguez power of attorney, which would give her the right to work with the Coroner’s Office to release the body. From there, she needed to figure out what to do. The Mexican Consulate played a role in finding the right funeral home to work with and providing financial assistance. The paperwork, the embalming, the coffin and the transportation were all separate hurdles.

“It took so much more work than it needed to. I kept repeating to Noe, ‘I’m sorry it’s taking so long,’” says Rodriguez.

Two days after Don Lupe died, Rodriguez and a colleague went to the farm where he was living to sort through his belongings. There they found, to their surprise, that Don Lupe had kept every piece of clothing and memento that Puente had given him. His everyday clothes were in one area, but his Puente possessions – many years’ worth – were carefully stored in bins. Don Lupe’s roommate explained that the clothes were destined for Don Lupe’s family members, whom he supported by sending checks home each week.

Also stored in among his most important papers – his drivers’ license, birth certificate and family photos – were his ESL certificates, which he earned for completing his English classes with Puente.

“It was hard that day. We got teary-eyed. We realized Puente was a really special part of his life,” says Rodriguez.

Puente also sent some members of its behavioral health team to talk to the men who lived and worked with Don Lupe – his closest friends. “They straight-up asked the men: how are you feeling? For Latino communities, I think it can be hard to say you need a therapist,” Rodriguez says.

The men were more interested in talking about how they could help raise money to get Don Lupe’s body safely home. It was the men’s idea to do a door-to-door community fundraising effort, and to assemble some purpose-built money collection cans during La Sala. Which may have been a form of therapy, too.

The fundraising campaign was a success. Not only did it help Don Lupe get home, it brought the community together at an important time.

Don Lupe had been the main financial provider for his family for more than 20 years. It’s unclear how they will cope without him.

Noe, his son, sent Puente a note of appreciation after Don Lupe arrived on June 8. The family buried him the same day.

“Thanks to God, we were able to bury my dad and have his body close by. Thank you very much for everything. Without you, we would not be reunited with him for the last time. On behalf of my whole family, thank you very much.”

Puente offers Safety Net of services for community members on the South Coast. Please support Puente’s work today.